Blue Denim is a 1958 Broadway play by writer James Leo Herlihy. It starred Carol Lynley, Warren Berlinger and newcomer Burt Brinckerhoff in the lead male role. Opening on February 27, 1958, the play ran for 166 performances at the Playhouse Theatre.
The following year, on July 30, 1959, the film version was released by 20th Century Fox with Lynley and Berlinger reprising their stage roles, but with a 17-year-old Brandon deWilde in his first "adult" role as the male lead Arthur Bartley. Macdonald Carey, Marsha Hunt and Roberta Shore appear as supporting characters.
In 1960, Carol Lynley was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female for the film Blue Denim.
Dealing with the issues of teenage pregnancy and (then-illegal) abortion, both versions were not without controversy. The play and the film had different endings, and the word abortion in the play was not used in the screenplay. In the original stage version, Janet does have her pregnancy aborted, and she and Arthur talk it over later as they settle their feelings for each other. When the play was adapted for Hollywood, however, strict production codes forbade anything but the condemnation of abortion, so the storyline was changed. Arthur and Janet instead get married and stay with Janet's aunt in another city until the baby is born.
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